New Ulm weekly review., 1887-09-28
THE PUBLIC LANDS.
How They May Be Acquired Home Making
Rendered Easy-Routine Experience Of
the Settler.
But Their Price Is the Boon-The Germ of
Real Patriotism-The Need Of More
Pubic Land

Free land has been, and is, a stalwart
agency in the settlement and civilization of
the so called West How much greater, or
Less. than other influences cannot say. A
friend and beneficiary Of our public land
system may overestimate it's influences upon
himself and his community, but it will be a
pardonable exaggeration. The peaceful
ease and rapidity with which a new terri
tory or prescribed area of our pub
lie dom ain is brought under the
plow. is remarkable. Favorable gov
ernment, climate and soil are undoubt-
edly inducements, but the price of the farm
is the determining consideration. The local
government may not be perfect, the climate
supernal and the soil inexhaustible, but the
land is free There is the boon. The people
Of the @efete" East may be skeptical as to
the climate and soil of Dakota, for instance,
but they have no doubt as to the cost OF 16O
acres OF her prairie The possession of vast
areas OF Enoccupied land has been supple
mented by a wiser dispossess1on. The finan-
cial necessities of the Rebellion taught our
statesmen that wild land was useless as a
source of revenue. Thereafter the reserva-
ton of the public domain for the actual set
tler became the fixed policy of the govern
ment. The cost to date, $l27, 900, 600 in
excess of the receipts therefrom, is the
wisest investment any nation ever made.
CENTER OF INTEREST.
Hence it is that the local United States
land Office is the center of interest in new
country. It is there the pioneer meets the
agents Of the government and secures his
free land To this office he submits his
troubles and grievances and through it OBJ
tains all possible relief. II intelligently and
honestly administered the settler has little
trouble in perfecting his claim and acquir-
ing patent from the United States sigaed
by the president. The method of making a
selection, entry and proof of residence and
improvement is SO simple that the most
ignorant stranger succeeds in his undertak-
ing and establishes title to his quarter
section as good as the nation can give. If
he makes mistake the government is al
ways ready to correct it for him as long as
the difficulty is between himself and
the government. A settler may make
application for one tract and establish his
home upon another. When the error in the
record is discovered, he can get it corrected
by submitting duly corroborated evidence of
his settlement upon the land he in
tended to enter The entry-man also finds
that his homestead is free from debts cou-
tracted before the patent issues and, more
over. is free from taxation for seven years
if he elects to live out the free period pre-
scribed by law before he is required to ten
der his proof of inhabitancy and cultivation.
Not only is the land donated to the home
steader, but it is exempted for all time from
the legal consequences Of former troubles,
honest or dishonest. If he loses it by in
curing new calamities the blame is his. The
result of this dual benefit is manifest
Loyalty, thrift and temperance ere the
characteristics of the community and COM
monwealth founded upon this rock.
THE RECTANGULAR SYSTEM
of surveys, reported to congress in 1854, by
Thomas Jefferson, is simplicity itself To
find the boundaries of piece of land easily
after il has been given to you, is the next
best thing to the gift itself. This is a dia-
gram of tract of land @on Salt Lick creek
emptying into the Ohio river in Virginia,
under the irregular SYSTEM" as it is in the
Atlantic states This illustration simply
shows the marking on the ground, and is
not one of the truly Irregular:
Dogwood + $40 perches White oak